Feeling pretty pleased with myself about now, been TRYING to grow Tulips for who knows how long, lost count of the number of bulbs planted that never grew and were lost completely.
This year, decided to give it another go and, voila, here they are, 4 days apart my first EVER Tulips in Bloom.
According to the wisdom(?) of my 8 year old Nephew, Henry, " They grew because you put up a sign to tell them that they had their OWN bed to grow in, so that's why they grew."
Can't beat the logic and reasoning of a child can you?
Most varieties need a long period of being frozen.
Well mine didn't get that only the odd occasional frost, that's about all.
IF the bulbs are frozen/get frozen then does that not also mean that the individual cells making up the bulb get split apart as they freeze?
@Triphid no, no, they actually Need To be frozen for quite awhile to bloom.
In this country, f you live in a place with only minimal or no prolonged hard freezes, you can buy (for big bucks!) bulbs that have been put in a deep freezer for several months & then plant them in Spring for a one-time show. They simply rot if not frozen, as opposed to normally planting them in the Fall.
@AnneWimsey REALLY, odd that I merely bought them in a package from a store, opened the package, extracted the 3 bulbs, planted them to the depth suggested and left to grow, NO freezing, etc, what-so-ever.
Every other attempt over the last 20 odd years has been done by storing the bulbs in a paper bag in the Fruit and Vegetable Crisper Drawer of a Refrigerator and EACH and EVERY one has been a TOTAL failure.
@AnneWimsey Just for your edification, AnneWimsey, I did some research regarding pre-planting treatment of Tulip bulbs.
Guess what, FREEZING them KILLS them completely.
CHILLING them by placing them in breathable container, i.e. a PAPER bag, and placing then in the Crisper Drawer of a refrigerator MAY enhance the stimulation they need to grow BUT FREEZING them DESTROYS the CELLS completely and you end up with S.F.A.
@Triphid I have had tulips return, untouched, unfertilized, in fact I forgot where they were, for over 35 years in Southern Connecticut, Zone 5B-6.
In that time we have Always seen (until last winter) weeks of below-freezing temps, as low as -10 F, all graveyards here have mausoleums to hold the bodies until the ground thaws enough to be dug in late Spring!
Your info is dead wrong, sorry.
@AnneWimsey Tell that to the Internet and Science, especially science because anyone with a modicum of scientific knowledge knowns that freezing any multicellular organism cause the fluid within the cells to expand as it freezes and rupture the cellular membrane hold the cell together.
Btw, UNLESS Southern Connecticut is in the Arctic Tundra/Sub-Arctic region/s then the freezing effect of being in the ground would mitigate by the insulating effect of the ground itself, since even in regions where the snowfall can exceed a layer of 2-3 feet or more on the ground, the soil below is seldom frozen beyond 4-10 inches below ground level.
However, I shall make it my next experiment to freeze a bulb, an onion which is btw classified as bulb just as are Tulips, etc, etc, and then once it has been frozen for, shall we say, 3-4 months, then I shall plant it, IN SPRING of course, and we shall see if it grows or simply rots away because it is already dead.
I will post photographic proof with times and dates imprinted on them as proof and evidence.
@Triphid it will Not work with onions, duhhhh, too high a water content. It will simply dissolve as the ice crystals will rupture its' cell upon thawing.
You as starting to remind me of a girlfriend who claimed to be a "wonderful" gardener, but rang to ask why her rhododendrons never bloomed. Turns out she was picking off all the nascent buds ( which would bloom in the Spring), in the Fall because "they are too early"!
One size does Not fit all, bulbs especially are very specific....
Tulips originated on the steppes of Mongolia, a place with Cold temps if ever there was one!
@AnneWimsey Well then JUST for you I shall try it with a bulb/corm from something like a Gladiolus since I have plenty of those and do NOT wish to waste a tulip corm/bulb.
But, I'll bet my hat that I am PROVEN correct and you are WRONG.
@Triphid I just told you, bulbs are as individual as any plant.
Did gladioli originate in a sub-zero climate like tulips did?? I think not!
@AnneWimsey Since most corms/bulbs are genetically related to the species of Narcissi, I would guess they'd be pretty much the same overall genetically base wise, it IS, after all, only the meddling of humans that has created these MINOR differences, just as we had done with, for example, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Beans, Peas, Carrots, Fruits, etc, etc, etc.
And even ourselves to some extent also btw.
Weβre the squirrels or other animals getting to the before? Dis you take up hunting this year?
Maybe it was a better pep talk you gave them this season?
No squirrels, etc, around this way Friend, check out the location, I'm in Australia, I live in a town in the Outback, well it has a population of approx. 19.500 at last count, rabbits are scarce these days since the Calici virus saw to them, but there are still a rare few hanging on by skin of their buck teeth though.
Don't talk to my plants, one DEFINITE Looney Tune inhabiting our neighbourhood is bad enough and I do NOT want to classified into his group/kind thank you.
@Triphid then it must be the sign!
@Barnie2years And its not even written in Dutch either...LOL.